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The phenomena of "Islamophobia without Muslims" in Poland has been contrasted to the phenomena of "anti-Semitism without Jews".<ref name ="CEEMR"/><ref name="Bobako">[https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0031322X.2018.1490112 Bobako, Monika. "Semi-peripheral Islamophobias: the political diversity of anti-Muslim discourses in Poland." Patterns of Prejudice 52.5 (2018): 448-460.]</ref><ref>Edwards, Maxim. "Polish Muslims, Polish Fears." New Eastern Europe 34.6 (2018): 119-127.</ref><ref name="Narkowicz2018_2"/> Islamophobia in Poland is related to Polish antisemitism, and arises as part of a continuing framework of [[othering]] and [[racism]].<ref name="Narkowicz2018"/><ref name="Narkowicz2018_2"/><ref name="Jaskulowski">[https://books.google.co.il/books?id=bvmGDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA39&lpg=PA39&dq=%22Many+researchers+argue+that+Islamophobia+is+rooted+in+Polish%22+%22earlier+anti-Semitic+clich%C3%A9s%22&source=bl&ots=hM8i0jEXUu&sig=ACfU3U2qhvOzra3JulPyRpp6J_2zA31Iig&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjztJ34ve3jAhVHyqQKHSUzDOIQ6AEwAHoECAEQAQ#v=onepage&q=%22Many%20researchers%20argue%20that%20Islamophobia%20is%20rooted%20in%20Polish%22%20%22earlier%20anti-Semitic%20clich%C3%A9s%22&f=false The Everyday Politics of Migration Crisis in Poland: Between Nationalism, Fear and Emphathy], Palgrave Macmillan, Krzysztof Jaskulowski, 2019, pages 38-45</ref> While Islamophobia is based on Western [[Orientalism]], in its expression is evokes prior [[antisemitic canard]]s.<ref name="Jaskulowski"/> Traditional Polish national identity formed in comparison to the "strange Jew" and in modern expression of Islamophobia Muslims fulfill a similar function of a "Muslim Other" who stands opposed to the Polish [[ingroup]].<ref name="Jaskulowski"/>
The phenomena of "Islamophobia without Muslims" in Poland has been contrasted to the phenomena of "anti-Semitism without Jews".<ref name ="CEEMR"/><ref name="Bobako">[https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0031322X.2018.1490112 Bobako, Monika. "Semi-peripheral Islamophobias: the political diversity of anti-Muslim discourses in Poland." Patterns of Prejudice 52.5 (2018): 448-460.]</ref><ref>Edwards, Maxim. "Polish Muslims, Polish Fears." New Eastern Europe 34.6 (2018): 119-127.</ref><ref name="Narkowicz2018_2"/> Islamophobia in Poland is related to Polish antisemitism, and arises as part of a continuing framework of [[othering]] and [[racism]].<ref name="Narkowicz2018"/><ref name="Narkowicz2018_2"/><ref name="Jaskulowski">[https://books.google.co.il/books?id=bvmGDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA39&lpg=PA39&dq=%22Many+researchers+argue+that+Islamophobia+is+rooted+in+Polish%22+%22earlier+anti-Semitic+clich%C3%A9s%22&source=bl&ots=hM8i0jEXUu&sig=ACfU3U2qhvOzra3JulPyRpp6J_2zA31Iig&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjztJ34ve3jAhVHyqQKHSUzDOIQ6AEwAHoECAEQAQ#v=onepage&q=%22Many%20researchers%20argue%20that%20Islamophobia%20is%20rooted%20in%20Polish%22%20%22earlier%20anti-Semitic%20clich%C3%A9s%22&f=false The Everyday Politics of Migration Crisis in Poland: Between Nationalism, Fear and Emphathy], Palgrave Macmillan, Krzysztof Jaskulowski, 2019, pages 38-45</ref> While Islamophobia is based on Western [[Orientalism]], in its expression is evokes prior [[antisemitic canard]]s.<ref name="Jaskulowski"/> Traditional Polish national identity formed in comparison to the "strange Jew" and in modern expression of Islamophobia Muslims fulfill a similar function of a "Muslim Other" who stands opposed to the Polish [[ingroup]].<ref name="Jaskulowski"/>


[[Poles in the United Kingdom|Immigration of Poles to the United Kingdom]] has led many migrants from the homogeneous Polish society to encounter a culturally diverse setting for the first time. This contact, coupled with continued contact with family members in Poland, has led to a transnational transfer of Islamophobia back into Poland.<ref>[http://eprints.gla.ac.uk/106764/ Gawlewicz, A. and Narkowicz, K. (2015) Islamophobia on the move: circulation of anti-Muslim prejudice between Poland and the UK. In: Suleiman, Y. (ed.) Muslims in the UK and Europe I. Centre of Islamic Studies, University of Cambridge: Cambridge, pp. 90-100.]</ref>
[[Poles in the United Kingdom|Immigration of Poles to the United Kingdom]] has led many migrants from the homogeneous Polish society to encounter a culturally diverse setting for the first time. This contact, coupled with continued contact with family members in Poland, has led to a transnational transfer of Islamophobia back into Poland.<ref>[http://eprints.gla.ac.uk/106764/ Gawlewicz, A. and Narkowicz, K. (2015) Islamophobia on the move: circulation of anti-Muslim prejudice between Poland and the UK. In: Suleiman, Y. (ed.) Muslims in the UK and Europe I. Centre of Islamic Studies, University of Cambridge: Cambridge, pp. 90-100.]</ref>{{verify}}


While Islamophobia existed previously in Poland, in connection to Polish casualties in the [[War on Terror]] and mosque construction in 2010 and 2012, the 2015 [[European migrant crisis]] made Islamophobia a central issue.<ref name="Jaskulowski"/> In conjunction, [[xenophobic]] attitudes increased in Poland including [[antisemitism]] and [[Islamophobia]].<ref name="Narkowicz2018_2">[https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10767-018-9287-9 Narkowicz, Kasia. "‘Refugees Not Welcome Here’: State, Church and Civil Society Responses to the Refugee Crisis in Poland." International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society 31.4 (2018): 357-373.]</ref><ref>[https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/11/big-issue-islamophobia-poland-171113064903344.html How big an issue is Islamophobia in Poland?], Shafik Mandhai, Al Jazeera, 14 November 2017</ref> As of 2018 Poland exhibits one of the highest rates of Islamophobia in Europe.<ref name="Pedziwiatr"/>
While Islamophobia existed previously in Poland, in connection to Polish casualties in the [[War on Terror]] and mosque construction in 2010 and 2012, the 2015 [[European migrant crisis]] made Islamophobia a central issue.<ref name="Jaskulowski"/> In conjunction, [[xenophobic]] attitudes increased in Poland including [[antisemitism]] and [[Islamophobia]].<ref name="Narkowicz2018_2">[https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10767-018-9287-9 Narkowicz, Kasia. "‘Refugees Not Welcome Here’: State, Church and Civil Society Responses to the Refugee Crisis in Poland." International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society 31.4 (2018): 357-373.]</ref><ref>[https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/11/big-issue-islamophobia-poland-171113064903344.html How big an issue is Islamophobia in Poland?], Shafik Mandhai, Al Jazeera, 14 November 2017</ref> As of 2018 Poland exhibits one of the highest rates of Islamophobia in Europe.<ref name="Pedziwiatr"/>

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Islamophobia in Poland is the fear, hatred of, or prejudice against the Islamic religion or Muslims in Poland. While the Muslim community in Poland is small (0.1% of the population), as of 2018 Poland exhibits one of the highest rates of Islamophobia in Europe,[1] a situation often described as "Islamophobia without Muslims".[2][3]

Background and context

According to a 2015 estimate, Muslims in Poland are estimated to number between 25,000 to 40,000 people or some 0.1% of the population, and are composed of Lipka Tatars (in Poland since the 14th century) as well as more numerous recent immigrants.[2] Initially the small Muslim community was treated equally unlike other minorities, Jews in particular, that have faced hostility and suspicion. During communist rule the censorship office barred unfavorable portrayals of Muslims due to Poland's geopolitical alignment with Arab countries during this period.[1]

The phenomena of "Islamophobia without Muslims" in Poland has been contrasted to the phenomena of "anti-Semitism without Jews".[2][3][4][5] Islamophobia in Poland is related to Polish antisemitism, and arises as part of a continuing framework of othering and racism.[6][5][7] While Islamophobia is based on Western Orientalism, in its expression is evokes prior antisemitic canards.[7] Traditional Polish national identity formed in comparison to the "strange Jew" and in modern expression of Islamophobia Muslims fulfill a similar function of a "Muslim Other" who stands opposed to the Polish ingroup.[7]

Immigration of Poles to the United Kingdom has led many migrants from the homogeneous Polish society to encounter a culturally diverse setting for the first time. This contact, coupled with continued contact with family members in Poland, has led to a transnational transfer of Islamophobia back into Poland.[8]

While Islamophobia existed previously in Poland, in connection to Polish casualties in the War on Terror and mosque construction in 2010 and 2012, the 2015 European migrant crisis made Islamophobia a central issue.[7] In conjunction, xenophobic attitudes increased in Poland including antisemitism and Islamophobia.[5][9] As of 2018 Poland exhibits one of the highest rates of Islamophobia in Europe.[1]

According to historian Jan T. Gross, the root of hostility to Muslim refugees in East European countries generally and Poland specifically is connected to the failure to come to terms with their role in the Holocaust and specifically complicity with the Nazis.[10][11] In contrast, Polish historians such as Aleksander Smolar have stressed the lack of a Polish colonial past.[10]

Polls

An anti-Islamic protest in Poland

Whereas the normal age distribution of prejudice is tilted towards older people, the opposite is true in Poland: A 2015 opinion poll showed 59 percent of 18 to 24 years associated Islam with dangers contrasted with 37 percent of those older than 65.[2] According to a 2016 poll, Poles significantly overestimate the size of the small Muslim community, believing that there are 2.6 million Muslims in Poland and that the Muslim population is expected to increase to 5 million (13 percent of the population) by 2020.[1] According to a 2011 poll, 47% of Poles stated that "too many Muslims live in Poland", and 62% stated that "Islam is an intolerant religion", the highest rate of the eight countries surveyed in the poll.[6]

In a 2018 poll of Catholic seminary students, 75 percent said they had no contact with Muslims. On a negative/positive scale of +50 to -50, students placed Catholicism at 44, Orthodox Christianity at 23, Islam at -8.4, and Jehovah's Witnesses at -10.2. 80 percent responded that Islam encourages violence, a notion that extends to individual Muslims which 80 percent viewed as more aggressive than non-Muslims. Almost 80 percent of future priests indicated that Muslims mistreat Women. Some 44 percent supported (partially or fully) the banning of Islam in Poland.[1]

Mosques

In 2010 the Muslim league of Poland [pl] planned the first purpose build mosque in Warsaw in the Ochota district. A group called Europe of the Future (Europa Przyszłości) organized protests against construction, framing their opposition in terms of "European values" of freedom of expression, secularism, democratic ideals, and women's rights. Prior to the protest, the group distributed posters resembling prior Swiss posters with a niqab clad woman and minarets resembling missiles.[6][12]

In 2012, the Ahmadiyya community attempted to build a mosque in the Włochy district of Warsaw. Europa Przyszłości, who were the main opponents of the Octha mosque, declared they would not protest as they viewed the Ahmadiyya community as peaceful. However, local councilors opposed the mosque construction, and most of the neighborhood signed a petition organized by Law and Justice councilors. The local council rejected the plan in 2013.[6]

Historic wooden Kruszyniany Mosque, target of an Islamophobic attack in 2014[6]

The Ochota mosque, the first in Warsaw, was finally opened before the Ramadan of 2015, a turning point in Polish Islamic history. However, the mosque had been faced with hostilities since construction, including an incident it was shot at and the tossing of a pig's head into the building after it opened. Furthermore, a wave of attacks against Polish mosques accompanied construction, including notably the drawing of a pig's head on the Kruszyniany Mosque of the Tatar community who had previously lived in Poland for hundreds of years without hostilities directed at them.[6]

Political parties

Law and Justice

Following the European migrant crisis, migration has become a central issue in Polish politics. The ruling Law and Justice(PiS) party has adopted the discourse typical of the far-right in Europe. PiS has linked national security with migration, and connected refugees with Muslims. PiS normalized biological and cultural racism, with Muslims facing racial othering.[7] In their statements, PiS politicians used falsified data and differentiated between refugees and so called economic migrants which had wholly negative connotations.[7] Following the 2015 Polish parliamentary election, PiS cemented control of public media and utilized Islamophobic rhetoric to rally its supporters. The mainstreaming of Islamophobic discourse may lend legitimacy to physical violence versus the "racialized Other".[13]

Extreme right

While in other countries, such as the Czech Republic, there have been positive relations between the extreme right and Islamism, in Poland this is rare.[12] In the 2006, League of Polish Families's MP Wojciech Wierzejski wrote a blog entry titled "Resistance to Islam" which was criticized by the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights.[12] In 2007 a branch of Stop Islamisation of Europe was established in Poland, and from 2010 the conservative Europe of the Future led by Jan Wójcik and the Euroislam.pl portal led by Piotr Slusarczyk have become vocal.[12]

Attitude of Catholic Church

While Pope Francis has called for Catholic communities to aid refugees, this call has not been well received in Poland. Some Polish bishops have questioned the papal call, and some younger priests have taken an active role in anti-Muslim and anti-refugee protests. This has contributed to Islamophobia moving from the fringes to mainstream discourse in Poland.[1]

Whereas in other Western countries Islamophobia has been linked with concerns of public displays of faith by Muslims, in Poland it has been connected to the Catholic church and the notion of European re-Christianization. The othering of Muslims is used to rally the faithful around "Christian" values in order to halt the imagined "conquest of Europe" by Islam.[6]

While the moderate wing of the Catholic Church has espoused toleration, conservative voices, associated with the conservative wing of the Church, expressed in Fronda.pl and Polonia Christiana (PCh24.pl) have been significant in their contribution to the stereotyping of refugees and Muslims.[1]

Events

Anti-Islam rally in Poland in 2015

In 2013, the Jewish and Tatar communities in Poland jointly protested a halal and kosher slaughter ban.[14]

According to the anti-racist organization "Never Again", the "biggest wave of hatred" in recent history took place during the Polish elections of 2015 when significant street protests against other ethnic and religious groups took place, focusing on Muslim refugees.[5]

In 2016, the wSieci magazine ran a cover with a white women assaulted by dark males under the title "The Islamic rape of Europe" which evoked outrage,[15] and has been compared to WWII propaganda with the same imagery.[2][16]

In May, 2016, shortly before the World Youth Day 2016, police in Kraków asked foreigners, mainly among the Muslim community, in the city if they “knew any terrorists"[17] The Polish Ombudsman's office released statement that such actions are offensive and unacceptable.

In June 2017, German Muslim schoolgirls said they faced racist abuse while visiting Holocaust memorials in eastern Poland. One girl said police had stood by, grinning, as she was spat on in the street. The Lublin police said in response that "the trip participants did not report any complaints to Lublin police officers".[18]

In November 2017, marchers in a 60,000 strong nationalist march in Poland expressed antisemitic and Islamophobia sentiments including carrying a banner saying "pray for Islamic holocaust". Jaroslaw Kaczynski, leader of governing PiS, described the incidents as "marginal", saying the marchers may have been baited. According to the American Jewish Committee the march was "seriously marred by hateful, far-right throngs that threaten the core values of Poland and its standing abroad".[19]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Pędziwiatr, Konrad. "The Catholic Church in Poland on Muslims and Islam." Patterns of Prejudice 52.5 (2018): 461-478.
  2. ^ a b c d e Goździak, Elżbieta M., and Péter Márton. "Where the wild things are: Fear of Islam and the anti-refugee rhetoric in Hungary and in Poland." Central and Eastern European Migration Review 17.2 (2018): 125-151.
  3. ^ a b Bobako, Monika. "Semi-peripheral Islamophobias: the political diversity of anti-Muslim discourses in Poland." Patterns of Prejudice 52.5 (2018): 448-460.
  4. ^ Edwards, Maxim. "Polish Muslims, Polish Fears." New Eastern Europe 34.6 (2018): 119-127.
  5. ^ a b c d Narkowicz, Kasia. "‘Refugees Not Welcome Here’: State, Church and Civil Society Responses to the Refugee Crisis in Poland." International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society 31.4 (2018): 357-373.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Narkowicz, Kasia, and Konrad Pędziwiatr. "From unproblematic to contentious: mosques in Poland." Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 43.3 (2017): 441-457.
  7. ^ a b c d e f The Everyday Politics of Migration Crisis in Poland: Between Nationalism, Fear and Emphathy, Palgrave Macmillan, Krzysztof Jaskulowski, 2019, pages 38-45
  8. ^ Gawlewicz, A. and Narkowicz, K. (2015) Islamophobia on the move: circulation of anti-Muslim prejudice between Poland and the UK. In: Suleiman, Y. (ed.) Muslims in the UK and Europe I. Centre of Islamic Studies, University of Cambridge: Cambridge, pp. 90-100.
  9. ^ How big an issue is Islamophobia in Poland?, Shafik Mandhai, Al Jazeera, 14 November 2017
  10. ^ a b Remembering the Second World War, Routledge, page 249, chapter by Jie-Hyun Lim
  11. ^ Kalmar, Ivan. "‘The battlefield is in Brussels’: Islamophobia in the Visegrád Four in its global context." Patterns of Prejudice 52.5 (2018): 406-419.
  12. ^ a b c d Mareš, Miroslav. "The extreme right’s relationship with Islam and Islamism in East-Central Europe: From allies to enemies." East European Politics and Societies 28.1 (2014): 205-224.
  13. ^ Jaskulowski, Krzysztof, and Marek Pawlak. "Migration and Lived Experiences of Racism: The Case of High-Skilled Migrants in Wrocław, Poland." International Migration Review (2019): 0197918319839947.
  14. ^ Robertson Huffnagle, Holly. "“Peaceful coexistence?” Jewish and Muslim neighbors on the eve of the Holocaust." East European Jewish Affairs 45.1 (2015): 42-64.
  15. ^ Polish magazine's 'Islamic rape of Europe' cover sparks outrage, The Guardian, 16 February 2016
  16. ^ The so-called 'Islamic rape of Europe' is part of a long and racist history, Washington Post, 16 February 2016
  17. ^ S.A., Wirtualna Polska Media. "Wiadomości z kraju i ze świata – wszystko co ważne – WP". wiadomosci.wp.pl. Archived from the original on 2016-05-23. Retrieved 2016-05-23. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  18. ^ Muslim girls complain of Polish racism on Holocaust study trip, BBC, 28 June 2017
  19. ^ Poland insists far-right marchers calling for 'Islamic holocaust' just sideshow to 'great celebration of Poles', Independent, 14 November 2017
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